ABSTRACT
In the decades following the Second World War, policy-makers chose from a rich menu of alternative models of egalitarian economic growth. Some advocated nationalization and central planning, to emulate the combination of rapid industrialization and relatively egalitarian distribution experienced by the Soviet Union and China. Others, especially in the developing countries, suggested import substitution policies, promising that both rapid industrial growth and high wages would flow from high tariff barriers. Policy-makers in the advanced capitalist countries largely favoured a Keynesian/social democratic model in which the welfare state and rapid wage growth promoted economic growth by increasing aggregate demand.
